Sunday
Nov292009
The Otaku Encyclopedia
Sunday, November 29, 2009 at 05:00PM
If you hang around the anime blogosphere long enough, chances are high that you have heard of Patrick W. Galbraith. He gets around a lot and has written for many websites and periodicals, especially for Otaku2.com and Metropolis magazine. Galbraith is perhaps best known for his presence at and giving tours at Akihabara while dressed as Goku. His most recent notable work was the completion of The Otaku Ecyclopedia which has been released in Japan and scheduled to release in North America in October. I have acquired an early copy for review from Kodansha International.
The Otaku Encyclopedia is exactly as the name describes. It has near 250 pages of definitions of topics relevant to anime and otaku culture. This is not an encyclopedia of anime series- you will want Jonathan Clement’s The Anime Encyclopedia for that. The Otaku Encyclopedia instead focuses on terms, concepts, important people, etc. relevant to otaku culture. Animation studios, figure companies, places, events, and a plethora of terms -foreign and domestic- commonly used by the otaku community, and much more are all represented.
The documentation is truly impression with a very large amount of content. The book’s petite size may give it the appearance of lacking content, but a wealth of information is crammed in there. All the essentials are covered, and pages and pages more of unexpected material. The author is clearly knowledgeable and the entries are rarely short blurbs, but are richly detailed and informative.
In addition to the standard entries, the following people were interviewed for the book: Nakagawa Shoko, Anno Haruna, Yamamoto Yutaka, BOME, hitomi, Murakami Takeshi, Morikawa Kaichiro, Ichikawa Koichi, Sakuragawa Himeko, Ayakawa Yunmao, Okada Toshio, and Hazuki Ako. While some are obvious choices, others were surprising (but welcome) inclusions.
I have no complaints with the production value either. The pocket size makes its perfect for all those times you leave the house (?) and need to need to know your geek facts without Wikipedia handy. It has an attractive dust jacket that covers a monochromatic cover underneath. Some pages are black and white, but much is in colour with a reasonable balance. If you don’t mind taking scissors to the back cover of your book (or live in modern times and have a printer) then you can cut out your own dress-up paper doll of the maid mascot- exciting stuff, I know. In a move of bold creativity, the mascot is named “moe” and makes appearances throughout. There is also a lot of fanservice in the book’s images, which I felt was overstepping the purpose for an encyclopedia. The article for BOME is pretty clearly understood without a photo of a PVC girl showing us her breasts. I’m sure this just went to the top of the Christmas list for many of you dear readers though.
I have to give a strong recommendation for this book. For anyone with a large interest in otaku culture, whether as an onlooker or an otaku veteran, there is much to appreciate within these pages.
The Otaku Encyclopedia is exactly as the name describes. It has near 250 pages of definitions of topics relevant to anime and otaku culture. This is not an encyclopedia of anime series- you will want Jonathan Clement’s The Anime Encyclopedia for that. The Otaku Encyclopedia instead focuses on terms, concepts, important people, etc. relevant to otaku culture. Animation studios, figure companies, places, events, and a plethora of terms -foreign and domestic- commonly used by the otaku community, and much more are all represented.
The documentation is truly impression with a very large amount of content. The book’s petite size may give it the appearance of lacking content, but a wealth of information is crammed in there. All the essentials are covered, and pages and pages more of unexpected material. The author is clearly knowledgeable and the entries are rarely short blurbs, but are richly detailed and informative.
In addition to the standard entries, the following people were interviewed for the book: Nakagawa Shoko, Anno Haruna, Yamamoto Yutaka, BOME, hitomi, Murakami Takeshi, Morikawa Kaichiro, Ichikawa Koichi, Sakuragawa Himeko, Ayakawa Yunmao, Okada Toshio, and Hazuki Ako. While some are obvious choices, others were surprising (but welcome) inclusions.
I have no complaints with the production value either. The pocket size makes its perfect for all those times you leave the house (?) and need to need to know your geek facts without Wikipedia handy. It has an attractive dust jacket that covers a monochromatic cover underneath. Some pages are black and white, but much is in colour with a reasonable balance. If you don’t mind taking scissors to the back cover of your book (or live in modern times and have a printer) then you can cut out your own dress-up paper doll of the maid mascot- exciting stuff, I know. In a move of bold creativity, the mascot is named “moe” and makes appearances throughout. There is also a lot of fanservice in the book’s images, which I felt was overstepping the purpose for an encyclopedia. The article for BOME is pretty clearly understood without a photo of a PVC girl showing us her breasts. I’m sure this just went to the top of the Christmas list for many of you dear readers though.
I have to give a strong recommendation for this book. For anyone with a large interest in otaku culture, whether as an onlooker or an otaku veteran, there is much to appreciate within these pages.
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